Red Dress
by moonliteshdow
Summary: Everything's normal. Kids are wrestling. Roddy is being a gent. Rita's wearing a dre... Hold the phone! Roddy/Rita


_Hey everyone, hope you enjoy the story! Obviously I don't own Flushed Away – if this were Aardman the story would be a damn sight better than this, LOL. I love the movie and just had to contribute my bit, inspired by the other cool stories in this section._

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Red Dress

'Well. I've got it on,' Rita's voice reluctantly echoed through the room. 'What do you think?'

She was trying on a dress that her mum had managed to make from some nice red material they had found in the sewers.

'You look lovely dear.' Her mum admired her handiwork. 'You need to find more material like this. I bet I could make you some really nice clothes…'

Roddy, who had been carrying a tray of soup through to the living room, simply stared.

'Don't be daft mum. Like I'm gonna go waltzing 'round the sewers wearing this in the middle of the day…' she muttered darkly, catching Roddy's eye and blushing. 'Oh no. That does it, I'm off now…'

'No, no, no!' Roddy near enough tripped over the coffee table and the soup wobbled dangerously as he made his way over to the pair. 'What's all this about then?'

'We're having a bath…' Rita retorted sarcastically. 'What do you think? I'm trying on this stupid dress because mum wants…'

'…To see her daughter in something nice for a change.'

'She always looks nice,' commented Roddy politely.

'It's alright, you don't need to lie dear.' Mum patted him on the shoulder.

'But I'm not,' Roddy said truthfully.

'Well I _know_ she always looks nice, but if she just wore more ladylike things like this every now and again – they really suit her,' Mum pondered.

Rita sighed.

'You _do_ look lovely Rita. But I quite agree that a dress would probably hinder sewer scavenging,' Roddy pointed out.

'Exactly my point Rod, thank you for taking my side.' She scowled at her mother.

Rita's mum sighed and went off to break up a wrestling match starting between two of her other children across the room. 'Two against one. Ah well, can't blame me for trying can you?'

'Want to bet? Now let me take this stupid thing off before I go crazy. I'm not comfortable and I feel ridiculous,' Rita muttered darkly.

Roddy was still looking at her. She wished he'd look away.

Roddy put the tray of soup down on the coffee table. Rita was secretly glad of this because she'd been watching its progress sliding off the tray, and knew it would have gone on the table with the tray or without it. He took hold of her hands and looked at her sincerely.

'Now this behaviour has to stop. You look beautiful Rita.'

At first, she raised an eyebrow. Then she realised he meant it, and rolled her eyes at herself, giving a small laugh.

'Thank you Roddy, no bloke's ever said that to me before.'

'Well they must have all been blind…'

'Well this is Ratropolis.' She grinned. 'If they weren't missing their sight then they'd be missing a leg or their marbles….'

'Don't change yet. Why don't we go out or something? Celebrate?' he suggested.

'Celebrate what?'

'Oh, for goodness sake, you don't need a reason; get on out the pair of you!' Rita's mum shouted, holding the previously wrestling small children by their shirt collars in each hand.

Perhaps somewhat threatened by this sight, Roddy and Rita quickly moved over to the door, smiling warily.

However, as Roddy failed to notice that one of the kids had tied his shoelaces together during their conversation, he stumbled slightly and fell flat on his face as they moved through it.

Roddy grinned at Rita nervously from his position on the floor. In the background, the house tilted to the left and they could hear Grandma singing something that sounded suspiciously like 'I love you Tom.'

'Well I suppose that told us.' She smiled, as he finished untying the laces and stood up, brushing his trousers.

'Yes. I didn't really want that soup anyway…'

Roddy held out his arm for Rita, and to his relief, she linked it.

After walking silently down the path for a couple of minutes, Rita spoke.

'You know it's strange how when you first came here I hated your guts…'

'Yes, well I did manage to give your ruby away to the Toad…' Roddy muttered, annoyed with himself.

'… But then I realised you weren't the person I thought you were…'

Roddy remained silent.

'You know Roddy, we come from different walks of life, even different classes so I'd understand if you didn't want to hang around me or my family…'

Stunned by this statement, Roddy immediately began,

'Rita. Class doesn't matter to me. You and your family matter to me… and… and you don't have to dress up like this to get my attention or for me to consider you a lady. You could be walking around in a… in a _bin liner_ and I'd still want to be around you.'

'Some people around here _do_…' Grinned Rita.

Roddy laughed, and took her hand in his. As they carried on walking, Rita found she had forgotten all about the dress.

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_The flood is nigh… er, I mean: the end is nigh!_


End file.
